Foothill Municipal Water District Recycled Water Project Update to Incorporate a Watershed Approach Introduction This paper will describe the Foothill Municipal Water District (FMWD) Recycled Water Project, its partnerships with Cal Poly Pomona and La Cañada High School and elaborate on the multiple benefits that have evolved since conception of the project. Benefits start with the development of a reliable local supply, the associated energy savings as well as lower greenhouse gasses and carbon footprint reduction (water recycling will use one-third the electrical energy as compared to State Water Project (SWP) imported supplies). Through partnerships noted above, benefits have expanded to include a collaborative effort to develop a curriculum to be implemented in conjunction with the project. Education outreach serves as an important component of this watershed approach to include stormwater capture and the abatement of urban runoff. The collaboration includes conservation outreach with drought tolerant landscaping at both sites. This project also seeks to support habitat/ecosystem integrity in nearby Hahamongna Watershed Park, as noted below. FMWD concluded its Recycled Water Feasibility Planning Study in January 2012. Three geographic areas were reviewed with various alternatives at each location for developing recycled water. One alternative is currently being pursued in the Arroyo Study Area for further development. In this alternative, a 250,000 gallon per day (GPD) membrane bioreactor (MBR) plant will be constructed. The location identified for the MBR site is adjacent to La Cañada United Methodist Church off Berkshire Place in the City of La Cañada Flintridge. Because of travel time limitations, a recycled water pipeline was to be constructed to the John Muir High School athletic fields located in Pasadena. The treated recycled water would then be recharged with new stormwater capture in the Monk Hill Basin, a sub-basin of the larger Raymond Groundwater Basin in compliance with the Salt and Nutrient Management Plan to be approved by the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, through the use of the infiltration galleries located underneath the athletic fields. Since completion of that study, draft Title 22 groundwater recharge regulations for recycled water have changed so that the travel time requirements have been reduced and emphasis has been placed on the accumulation of water quality data for determining the impact of recharged recycled water into the basin. Thus, the possibility of using La Cañada High School s athletic fields to construct the infiltration galleries is feasible which decreases construction cost and keeps the project within the City of La Cañada Flintridge. The modified recycled water project continues to be consistent with: The FMWD funded and State Water Resources Control Board approved recycled water feasibility study,
The Arroyo Watershed Plan developed by the Army Corps of Engineers, Metropolitan Water District s Integrated Resources Plan approved in 2010, Pasadena Water and Power s Integrated Resources Plan, and Los Angeles Basin s Salt and Nutrient Management Plan. This change of location for the infiltration galleries coupled with partnerships with Cal Poly Pomona and La Cañada High School has allowed the FMWD Recycled Water Project to be integrated into the Arroyo Seco Watershed and a key feature to having a sustainable reliable supply within the Raymond Groundwater Basin. These partnerships, that previously had not existed, align with increased shared benefits. The remainder of this paper will describe the partnership with Cal Poly Pomona and La Cañada High School and the benefits that this project incorporates. Partnership with Cal Poly Pomona Three of Cal Poly Pomona s departments are involved with the partnership: Civil Engineering Department Department of Landscape Architecture Department of Urban and Regional Planning The departments received a grant through the Cal Poly Pomona Strategic Interdisciplinary Research Grant Program to assist FMWD in the following aspects of the project: 1. Preparation of a 3D model of the infiltration galleries, 2. Development of a drought tolerant landscaping for both the MBR and school site, and 3. Development of a conservation and educational component to the Project. As part of the challenge, Cal Poly Pomona must find outside grants to continue this type of grant funding program from the college. Within the Civil Engineering department the project will be the focus of a one-year capstone course, which is required for graduation. For the Landscape Architecture and Urban and Regional Planning students, this project will provide them with a project based elective which contributes to their degree programs as well. In addition to the 3D model already mentioned, the Capstone project will involve 10 Civil Engineering students for one (1) academic year requiring them to develop preliminary facility designs and analyses needed to demonstrate the feasibility of the project. Because most of the engineering work is below ground, seven (7) Landscape architecture students will design the above ground space adjacent to the MBR plant and above the infiltration gallery. Additionally two (2) Urban and Regional Planning students will assess the impact of water recycling on city planning and examine the ideal policies to encourage these projects moving forward. The progress made by the three student groups will be assessed a minimum of three times over the course of the project life-time in the form of oral presentations made to industry representatives and to representatives of FMWD. These assessments are tentatively scheduled to take place November 30, 2012, March 15, 2013, and May 31, 2013. The final presentation will be in conjunction with the College
Of Engineering s Capstone symposium. In addition to the on-campus reviews, the project will be reviewed nationally as part of the Parsons-Brinkerhoff Student Design Competition, presented at the Environmental and Water Resources Institute World Congress May 22, 2013. Benefits of the New Approach Benefits stemming from the original recycled water project were two-fold. First, the project inherently reduces dependency on imported water, which is unreliable when compared to the availability of recycled water. Please note that the initial development of recycled water is limited to 250,000 gallons per day or 280 acre-feet per year. This number was derived from the low flows in the Los Angeles County Sanitation District owned sewer pipeline, which contains the wastewater stream, during a time when demands for potable water and thus production of wastewater are low due to the economic downturn, increased conservation due to a water shortage and unusually cooler, rainy weather. As these factors change, this low flow number will increase slightly thus guaranteeing the output of 250,000 gallons per day of treated recycled water. The second benefit with developing recycled water is the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions compared to importing water from Northern California to FMWD s service area. The problem with importing water is that significant amounts of energy are required to pump the water through the California Aqueduct to Southern California. This energy usage is compounded with the significant amount of energy used to pump water to FMWD s service area. During an average year, FMWD can use as much as 6,000 megawatts to pump this water to its service area. Thus, the net energy savings of developing 280 acre-feet of recycled water in FMWD s service area is enough to provide for 85 homes in Southern California for one year. The partnership with Cal Poly Pomona, adds more benefits. The first benefit is the water conservation feature where the project sites are landscaped with drought tolerant plants. These sites can then be used for tours which showcase Southern California friendly landscaping and improved irrigation technologies. As these sites are used every day by both adults and students, they will naturally be exposed to the landscaping (tours will be documented for recordkeeping purposes). Also, appropriate signage will be placed in the landscaped sites along with information on FMWD s website. In addition, an education curriculum will be developed. The California State Curricula for fifth grade requires the education of students in earth science, specifically water: Students in grade five learn that cooling in the atmosphere returns water vapor to a liquid or a solid state as rain, hail, sleet, or snow. They are also introduced to factors that control clouds, precipitation, and other weather phenomena. Students also learn that most of Earth s water is present as salt water in the oceans, that oceans cover most of Earth s surface, and that the amount of fresh water on Earth is limited. They study their local watershed to learn about the origins of the water used by their local
communities and learn that the availability of fresh water can be extended by recycling and conservation practices. 1 As part of the outreach component of this project, a new curriculum will be developed to conform to and enhance this state standard. When Cal Poly Pomona and FMWD staff met with representatives of La Cañada High School they expressed an interest in developing more than the component listed above. A social science component was suggested with a Careers in Water/Environment addition. These will be included as part of the newly developed curriculum. Tours of the MBR plant will be provided and the infiltration galleries explained as well as a model of the infiltration galleries can be provided for further education. Design of the MBR plant will consider public access to allow for tours to promote further education with regards to the treatment process of recycled water. Topics will include imported water and local water sources as well as highlighting conservation inside the home and drought tolerant landscaping. Tours will then go across the street to Hahamongna Park where the watershed, stewardship of the Arroyo Seco and history of the area will be described, with an emphasis on ecosystem and natural habitat features. All tours will be documented and reported each year. Partnering with La Cañada High School When the site of the infiltration galleries was moved to La Cañada High School from John Muir High School, more benefits were derived through the Project. La Cañada High School has two athletic fields (baseball and softball fields) with natural turf in addition to a football/soccer field which has artificial turf. Both rainfall and irrigation on the all athletic fields is captured through a subsurface drainage system and diverted to storm drains. Rather than diverting to storm drains, flows will be channeled to the MBR plant, treated and then discharged into the infiltration galleries thus increasing the recharge of the Basin, reducing flows in the storm drains and improving water quality. It is estimated that on average approximately 15 acre-feet per year of stormwater runoff and 23 acre-feet per year of urban runoff will be recharged (see attached tables for calculations). The two athletic fields are jointly utilized by La Cañada High School and the City of La Cañada Flintridge. This new site location provides additional opportunities to partner with the City of La Cañada Flintridge, which allows the project greater communal benefit in education with regards to conservation, imported water, recycled water, storm water, groundwater and overall water supply cycle with FMWD. A Model for the Future Most importantly, the Foothill MWD Recycled Water Project offers benefits beyond the local scope of the project, since the infiltration system design, landscape palate, educational curricula and ecosystem 1 California Department of Education. Earth Sciences (Earth s Water). A look at Fifth Grade in California Public Schools and the Common Core State Standards. October 2011. http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/cf/documents/glc5thgradecurriculum.pdf
field trips will be created in such a way that they can be modeled for use by other water agencies, school districts, and community groups throughout the state. To our knowledge, this is the first stormwater infiltration gallery project of its type in California and offers a new era of innovation for local source water reliability and sustainability. Summary As this project has evolved, benefits continue to increase as new partnerships and input from stakeholders contribute more to the project. The excitement of these stakeholders continues to increase as this project evolves to one which the entire community will embrace and will be a showcase of what successful partnerships with multiple stakeholders can achieve.
Stormwater Calculation 1. Football field including end zones 57,600 2. Add for soccer field 20,000 3. Track assuming 20 ft wide by 1 mile length 105,600 4. Add softball field 40,000 5. Add Baseball field 95,000 6. Total Area 318,200 7. Gallons per square foot for every inch of rainfall 0.6230 8. For one inch rainfall, gallons for total area. 198,238.60 9. LA Civic Center average annual precip (inches) 14.41 10. Mt. Wilson average annual precip (inches) 34.58 11. Mid-way between rainfall. 24.50 12. Total Estimated Gallons of Captured Rainfall 4,855,855 13. Total Estimated Acre-feet of Captured Rainfall 14.90 Urban Runoff Calculation 1. Football field including end zones 57,600 2. Add for soccer field area 20,000 3. Track assuming 20 ft wide by 1 mile length 105,600 4. Add softball field 40,000 5. Add baseball field 95,000 6. Total Area (feet) 318,200 6. Gallons per 1000 feet per year for lawn 9,546,000 7. Annual savings for football field 7,546,000 8. Estimated annual acre-feet of dry weather runoff 23.16